bamboo and Ipe sugestions wanted.

[JWMALONE]

  Hello Guys, so I got me some ipe  plu a bamboo and white oak backing strip, gonna make a new bow!. The Ipe is  1 1/4 wide by 1 7/16 thick, 72 inches, dark brown.
  The bamboo is long enough I can get a 70 inch bow but will have two nodes about 2.5 inches from each tip. Or to get them  7.5 inches from each tip I could make a 62 inch bow, my draw is 26 .25.
   I would like to get two bows from this but don't know exactly how much will be there after I run it through the table saw, would rather have one good bow as opposed to two scrap pieces. Wouldn't mind having a short bendy handle bow, of course a nice long bow would be cool as well. Thinking more of a hunting bow, nice and narrow and compact, and a hard hitter.
   My question is what would you make? Also what kinda starting thickness would you use for Ipe, I've never used it before.
Thanks Guys and Gals.

[Springbuck]

  Nodes close to the tip will be just fine.  Almost any style of bow will have stiff tips that close to the end.  I guess the swell at the nodes ads a tiny bit of thickness weight, but whatever.

ONE place I learned the hard way NEVER to place nodes is close to the handle, just off the fade-outs.  This creates an area where right as it fades thnner, it suddenly swells again due to the nodes.  I have had two otherwise fantastic boo-backed R/D bows (goncalo alves and massaranduba) eventually fret like crazy between the fade and that first node, and I just couldn't see that they were over-strained there ahead of time.  Overworked it like crazy, but it LOOKED stiff.

You should have PLENTY of wood for two bows, but can you saw it either way and get 1-/7/16" width?   I was usually starting with a 1/8" backing or so, a 1/8" power lam or so, and a 3/8" belly lam for woods like ipe, osage, bulletwood, even black locust.  Even then they are impossibly stiff at first.   Ipe is really stiff and strong.  It's a little narrow for some designs at 1-1/4". I wouldn't try some radical reflexed recurve, or highly reflexed bow with it.  You have plenty of length.

If you lose 1/8" thickness to the saw, you still have more than a half inch per lam, either way. Which is a LOT of ipe, honestly.  If you backed that with bamboo into ANY reflex, you'll be SHOCKED how stiff it is coming off the form.  At only 1-1/4" wide, keep any reflex or R/D moderate. 

If you took 66-70" or so, left the middle 50% with parallel sides, and tapered to skinny tips, you could make a great hunting longbow that essentially tillers like an ELB or African longbow but a less deep cross section.  Kind of like some NA bows, too, in tiller shape, but with the narrowed tips.   You may have to build up a handle for comfort.  You could make an even shorter BITH (64"-66" for round figures) with similar tiller, but stiffer outer limbs.  You could also make a flatbow with a barely narrowed handle.   On any of these I would induce only a little reflex at glue up, just enough to counter any set.

Good luck, have fun!  Let us know how it goes.

[JWMALONE]

Thanks Springbuck. I'm so excited.

[Badger]

      The most common mistake I see with ipe and I see it made very often is that when the bowyer goes to reflex it instead of a slow sweeping curve it often to abrupt. Tillering before glue up so it makes a nice gentle curve that increases as it nears the tips. 2 1/2" reflex and 1 1/4 wide should be good demensions at maybe 66" long for your draw.

[JWMALONE]

Good point badger, made that mistake once on some red oak it wasn't to big a deal. For this one I've been researching exactly what you're describing.

[Springbuck]

   2 1/2" reflex and 1 1/4 wide should be good demensions at maybe 66" long for your draw.

  Mind if I pick your mind, Steve?   I'm not as good with bendy handles.

 For what style of bow do you mean this, BITH?  And, do you mean even reflex throughout, or more/less in any given spot?

 I second the caution about reflex, though.  If it's all concentrated toward the middle it can really be a tough tiller.

[Badger]

        If I cut the ipe board into I might go for deflexing through the handle area and then sweeping back up gradually into reflex from about mid limb, starting off with a very gentle up curve that increased as it neared the handle. Same if you don't deflex at the handle area. But I wouldn't add more than about 2/1/2" behind the back of the bow.

[Springbuck]

Thanks.  About like I would have thought, except that much reflex (with no deflex) on skinny bows gives me fits during early tillering.

[JWMALONE]

Badger, I've been watching another fellow on  different site and he does it like you're talking about. That's what I had planed, I will keep it to a minimum. Although because I've never worked with bamboo or ipe or a r/d, I thought about just a straight limbed bow. That way I'm not biting off more than I can handle at one time.

[Badger]

I seldom deflex through the handle, I usually glue up with a 1 3/4 thickness at the handle and about mid limb I use my rubber bands to pull the limb down on to a 3/4 thickness block and then sweep upwards from that point. If you tiller the bow out with the right tapers it will follow the right curvature without a true form.

[PEARL DRUMS]

If you want a 70" bow I wouldn't go much over 1" wide. I have a hickory backed that is 69" and right at 1" wide. Its an incredibly stiff wood and takes very little wood to make a bow. Also, thin the boo down or you may end up with more back thickness than ipe.